Walking Away from the Truth
1 Timothy 4:1-5
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by the hypocrisy of liars, who have been seared in their own conscience, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
1 Tim 4:1-5 (LSB)
It is no secret that throughout history, there has been this ongoing war between truth and lies between God and Satan. And we might have reasons in our own minds for this or have various explanations of why this is happening or what we see today as the opposition, what we might call truth and what we might call lies. It is a good reminder when we read a letter like 1 Timothy, that Paul is warning Timothy, a very capable minister of the gospel, that the right path may not always be that easily deciphered. And the warning that Paul gives Timothy is that “some will fall away from the faith,” that someone may embrace the gospel, and yet, later on, abandon that faith. And this will become a test of faith, that only time will prove whether they were truly of the faith, that whether they were true believers who will come back to the Lord or by their actions, they prove that they were never truly one of the Lord’s sheep. In 1 John 5, John spoke about those who eventually left the faith, proving that they were never truly of the faith. So, this should not surprise us, we must be aware of this. These are not those who were at one time saved and then lost their salvation. They are those who eventually prove by their actions that they were never truly saved, as the Bible is clear that those who are true believers will persevere to the end.
So, when it says that some will fall away from the faith, we must understand that this will happen. Paul states (vs 1) but the Spirit explicitly says. Therefore, we cannot be surprised at this, as the Bible is not surprised at this, and it may be someone we dearly love, some of you may know this. And it does us no favour to pretend that someone is saved because they raised a hand when they were eight years old or baptized when they were twenty, as we must treat them as an unbeliever, loving them as an unbeliever, and praying that they will come to Christ.
So, what is the warning that Paul gives, that some will fall away from the faith? Why? Because they will (vs 1) pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, and (vs 2) by the hypocrisy of liars. The result, their conscience is seared. And in Timothy’s day part of this lie was forbidding marriage and certain foods. And we need to keep in mind that the context of all this discussion concerns the household of faith, the church. So, we must realize that those who fall away from the faith were at one time part of the church. And it would seem that the danger is greater in “later times,” where greater will be the deceiving of spirits and wrong doctrines. Whereas deacons and elders are to be the guardians of the truth, both in their proclamation of the gospel, but also, that their lives are to confirm its truth as well. But here we find in the church, those who have seared consciences and therefore have become liars, hypocrisy of liars, as they pretend to be spiritual.
And we cannot put this out of our minds as the Bible clearly warns of this. John 6:66, “As a result of this many of His disciples went away and were not walking with Him anymore.” The writer of Hebrews (Heb 6) spoke of those who heard the gospel, they saw the work of the Holy Spirit. They were raised in the teaching of God’s Word and Christianity, and yet, they fell away, And though the wording tells us that they were deceived, their leaving is a deliberate action. The Greek word aphistemi translated “to fall away” means a purposeful, deliberate departure. In other words, though at one time they had a close proximity to salvation and the truth, they deliberately chose to walk away.
And this is such a warning because it teaches us that there are those here this morning who may appear to be believers, but they are not. Jesus spoke of those who received the Word of God with joy, and that they superficially believed for a little while, yet they had no real root and eventually they fell away. This is not someone who is struggling to believe, but it is someone who deliberately disbelieves, despite all that has been fed into them. And this is referred to as an apostate who is not someone unaware of the gospel. No, the definition of an apostate in your notes, is someone who knew the truth for a time, and it may have been a long time, yet walked away from the truth. So, in these five short verses, we need to learn some important truths about apostasy.
- Apostasy Becomes Greater in the Last Days (vs 1).
We need to understand that the term “in later times” can refer to any time during the church age. The writer of Hebrews spoke of these later days referring to the New Testament times. But there is also the understanding that as these days continue, it would seem that the circumstances will grow more difficult … and climax in the end In Matthew 24:12, when Jesus spoke about the time of His return coming closer, He said that people’s love will grow colder. So, we can assume that the walking away from the faith and walking away from the church will increase. So, we are going to have to realize this and not allow it to be seen as a weakness of the gospel, for it certainly cannot be seen as a weakness when the Bible warns us and itself tells us this. Truth #1, apostasy will become greater in the last days. Truth #2:
- Apostasy Comes from Satan (vs 1).
We often refer to political leaders and those who may influence our culture. We may even talk about conspiracy theories about what is going on in government. And sometimes we may view it as something so complicated that we can never get our minds wrapped around it. But in reality, it is simply this, Satan is working in the hearts of individuals to perform his desires in the world. This is no different than Eden, where Satan worked in the hearts of two individuals to bring sin and death into the world. So, I would suggest that no world conspiracy is being driven by humans. We might read such things as, I wonder what “they” are up to, as I would think that the “they” are as much divided as anyone else.
But if we want to point to a real “they,” or a real uniting force or we should say a real uniting person, it is Satan. Yes, people are sinful. Yes, people will be in opposition against God, but it is not people who are our enemy. Now they may think of us as their enemy, but our real enemy is Satan, for ultimately it is Satan who opposes God and who opposes all humans. We must understand it is not like Satan is on their side, for Satan cares little for believers, but he does not care for unbelievers either. I suppose we could say that they are on Satan’s side, yet that has come through his deception.
See, this is where we can become too afraid of the unbelieving world, which may steal from us the compassion and care we are to have for them, for unbelievers are simply who we were. And the Bible makes it clear that our opposition in (Eph 6) is not against flesh and blood, but against the world forces of darkness, in other words, Satan and his forces. And so we do not need to fear the unbeliever. What Paul is warning us against is the philosophical message that comes from the unbeliever, whose ultimate source is Satan. John MacArthur said this:
“Apostates are not actually the victims of sophisticated university professors, false religious leaders, or wickedly clever writers or speakers. They are the victims of demonic spirits, purveying [supplying or selling] lies from the depths of hell through such humans.”
John MacArthur
I have probably said wrongly at times, using the term “human thinking,” which I would use as the opposite of biblical truth. But in reality, it should really be referred to as the “doctrine of demons.” For we need to understand that all lies have a source, and the source is the same as it was in the Garden, Satan. Therefore, it is nothing new, it is just that the words are sometimes different, but they all have a similarity, they are all connected with Satan and therefore are opposed to truth and God. We do not want to hate the sinner. We do not want to hate the spokesperson, who may be the Prime Minister, the regional leader, or the little old lady down the street, as the source of their error is Satan. Our responsibility to those who are deceived is that of rescuing them from the evil one. Listen to Jude’s plea:
“And on some, who are doubting, have mercy; and for others, save, snatching them out of the fire.”
Jude 22 (LSB)
Have mercy on those who are being deceived. Yes, to be cautious that we too do not get sucked in, but that we would also have mercy upon them, desiring to snatch them from the fire. Anne and I knew of a police officer years ago who was a church-goer and who was involved in undercover work, having to attend places of prostitution and alcohol and drugs, who over time found himself sucked in and who eventually walked away from the faith. So, we are to snatch, not the enemy, but snatching the unbeliever from the enemy, who is Satan. And doing it fearfully, so as not to be deceived ourselves. Truth #2, apostasy comes from Satan. Truth #3:
- Apostasy Comes from Satan through Human Agents (vs 2).
Though the source is Satan and his demon army, Satan will use humans to perform his work. So yes, the source is not flesh and blood, but the supernatural forces of evil. But the message, the evil outpour will often come through Satan’s agents, who are humans, who are flesh and blood, as that phrase “hypocrisy of liars” could literally be said to be “hypocritical or deceitful lie-speakers.” In other words, I suppose we could say that it is humans who become the mouthpieces for Satan. And the only thing different from the Garden is that since Satan did not have other humans to speak for him, he used a snake, but now he often will use human beings. I thought about that, that it would be foolish of us to get angry and hateful towards the serpent in the Garden, as we know the message came from Satan. So too, it would be sort of foolish to throw our hatred toward the unbeliever, when the source is still the same, Satan.
And Paul is not really warning here of obvious error. He is warning here of those who actually know the truth and are deceived. So, they are not deceived to believe that hatred is good and right, that people are to be lazy, that addictions are good, or that we are to disrespect those over us. No, these are people who would be seduced into believing that man is generally good, that he does not need a Saviour, that the message of the Bible of a real heaven and real hell is untrue, and that Jesus will not come back to judge the world. In fact, many of these folks who walk away, do not walk away to become drug addicts or adulterers or thieves, no, they walk away because they do not believe the gospel, that’s the bottom line.
So most of them appear good and they love their spouses and children. Many will walk away from gospel-preaching churches and run to social reform. They may lead charges such as world hunger or healthcare. And these are all good things which have often been led by Christians. But those who walk away do not lead these causes in the name of Christ or the name of the Bible, but they are being led in the name of human love and good works. But they are often attached to good things, for they were once part of the church and some may teach in Christian schools, or they may have grown up in Christian families.
But they will not attach the gospel to their new agenda. In other words, they will keep many good Christian principles, but they have rejected and walked away from the gospel. And sometimes we might hope that they will be further convicted, and that is certainly the prayer, as Paul later wrote to Timothy, that they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil. But most will not, for (vs 2) their conscience has been seared. This could be described as their conscience has become numb. The conscience that at one time warned alarmingly about right and wrong, and truth and lies has lost its power to do so, which is a warning to you and me, that if our conscience has become seared in some areas of our lives, it too may become seared at some point regarding the gospel. Yes, apostasy will come through human agents.
Now the fourth truth about apostasy is the most difficult as it pertains to what they did, (vs 3) “who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods.” Here in Timothy’s church, some were forbidding marriages and they were abstaining from foods. What was the real issue here? It would seem that they were advocating certain disciplines that God did not. So, we will talk about this in a moment, but let me give you truth #4 first.
- Apostasy Begins with Subtle Questioning of the Bible (vs 3a).
The deception here with marriage and food is that there may be some truth attached. Just as Satan’s lie to Eve had some truth attached to it, as Satan will rarely deceive with a direct, clear wrong. Hard to know everything that is going on here, but it would seem that some had taken the teaching that it is good to be single so that a person could dedicate himself fully to God, which is the truth that Paul taught. This may have led to this teaching that people should not marry when Paul actually said in 1 Corinthians 7 that most should. And concerning food, this may have something to do with the discipline of fasting, which led some to teach strict times of fasting or regimented fasting, which led some to believe that either singleness or scheduled fasting became part of who a Christian was. Or some may have continued the Jewish dietary laws when Jesus declared all foods “clean” (Mark 7:19).
There was a Jewish sect that appeared in history a little after this time that taught much about self-denial. Things like isolation, denying marriage, and enforcing dietary regulations, and this may have been the first effects of this early movement. Interestingly Paul seems to be addressing a similar issue with the church in Colossae.
“Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are only a shadow of what is to come.”
Col 2:16-17a (LSB)
Well, how does this apply to us today, as some of these things do not seem to be huge concerns for us? Well, let’s go back to our statement, apostasy will begin with subtle questioning of the Bible. This would be the first sign of warning to each of us. So, let’s listen. Apostasy does not begin with a complete turning away from Christianity. No, it will begin with subtle disbelief that will not break down everything you believe immediately, but it will begin to make you question certain aspects of the Bible.
And here is what may happen. Disbelief in parts of the Bible, not completely but some of it: Old Testament stories, Adam and Eve, or the destruction of God’s enemies. Next will be a questioning of God’s fairness: God’s right to destroy; the sinfulness of man vs the goodness of man; a literal understanding of hell will seem so unfair; and we may start to think that we are more loving than the biblical God; and when man’s goodness is raised, God’s wrath is questioned. Next will be a questioning of biblical doctrines: the inerrancy of the Bible; the depravity of man; and the deity of Christ or the doctrine of the Trinity. And now that I have slowly raised myself over God’s Word, the next step is my thinking and goodness begins to be my new god. So, all the good things that Christianity speaks of become my new agenda: humanitarian efforts, world hunger, and healthcare; which all come with the substance of Christianity, but without the gospel of Christianity. So, slowly eliminated is that man is guilty before God. Slowly eliminated is that God has the right to do with His creation as He desires. Slowly eliminated is man’s eternal destruction, which eliminates the need for repentance and salvation, which ends the truth that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that all other religions are false.
And here is where the deity of Christ breaks down, as Jesus in the Bible is the Mediator between God and man. And yet because of seemingly unfairness, I become, man becomes the mediator for the world, the solver of the problems. And what is left, the goodness of man, who has a heart for world hunger, for world peace, or whatever good work is placed in his mind. And that may begin with biblical principles. But it may also become extremely distorted, and all of it is outside of the gospel, as eventually any resemblance to Christianity fades. And then they neither glorify God nor give thanks to Him, but they become futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts are darkened. And they think they are wise, yet they become fools. And therefore, God gives them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity. And all this transition and moving away is what? The doctrine of demons, the hypocrisy of liars that rip apart the conscience. And the exact words have changed from the Garden, but the lie is the same, as Satan deceives man to question the words and commands of God, as apostasy begins with subtle questioning of God’s truth revealed in His Word.
And the pull here is becoming stronger for who is going to reel in the one walking away? Will it be the Christian in the world? Possibly, but that voice is becoming quieter. Will it be the Internet? No, that voice is becoming far too confusing. Will it be the church? Maybe, but much of the church too is drifting away on this one. So, how is apostasy stopped? How are people halted from walking away from the gospel? Truth #5:
- Apostasy is Arrested when God’s Rightful Position is Affirmed (vs 3b-5).
I am sure that we could say some things here, and give our thoughts on what needs to be done to stop this movement away from the core of the Bible. But what does Paul say?
“… which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
1 Tim 4:3b-5 (LSB)
Firstly, let’s look at this from the direct issue that Paul is dealing with, food and marriage. All people enjoy food and many people enjoy marriage. Yet not everyone gives the Lord thanks for these things. So, in this sense food and marriage are enjoyed truly by the believer, because only the believer knows that these things come from God. Only those (vs 3) who believe and who know the truth. See, when we begin to question the goodness of God and His right to do with us as He pleases, our gratefulness to Him for simple things such as food and marriage begins to wane. Yet Paul says (vs 4) nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving to God. Here is the mindset of the true believer, two verses come to mind when I see good things or things that may even bring heartache to us. One is Paul’s statement to the Romans as he thanks the Lord for everything.
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.”
Rom 11:36 (LSB)
And the second is the words of Job.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21 (NASB)
See, these verses do not move us away from the Scriptures, nor do they cause us to question the hand of God, but they confirm His hand and confirm His leading. In other words, my circumstances confirm the greatness and the right of God, not question His greatness, not question His right to do as He pleases. Chuck Swindoll said:
“God’s purpose is unfolding and I cannot hinder it.
God’s plan is incredible and I will not comprehend it.
God’s reproof is reliable and I dare not ignore it.
God’s way is best and I must not resist it.”
Paul goes on to say here:
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
1 Tim 4:4-5 (LSB)
Everything that God created is good for us, whether that is food or marriage, all within the confines of His truth or (vs 5) sanctified by the Word of God, and not under the deceitfulness or the lies of Satan. Food is great, when it is not abused. Sex is great, within the confines of marriage. But all these things outside of God’s boundaries, whether that is marriage, food, work, or pleasure, all become sinful and wrong and become avenues for the lies of Satan. And the further we bounce from the Word of God and allow ourselves to question His truth, we risk being on the outside looking in. I suppose part of the warning here by Paul to Timothy in his congregation is this, Timothy, where will some of your folks be in one year, five years, or twenty years from now? And so Paul might say to us at Elim, where will we all you be a few years from now? And a good place to start when thinking of yourself is not what doctrinal statement I might sign, for we would likely all be similar in what we think we believe mentally. But what doctrinal statement are you living to live? In other words, where is your heart right now? Is it right there with God and His truth or is it bouncing around a little? Where does the rubber meet the road for you?
When we read the Word of God, believe it. The easy parts, and easy to easy-to-swallow parts, and the difficult parts. And never allow your mind to question God. Question your understanding, but do not question the Bible. And thank Him for all that you see and understand, and ask to help you with what you do not understand. And when you encounter a difficult passage, a heartache in life, even a tragedy, trust Him, trust Him with your very soul. Because a true believer will not walk away from Christ when God’s rightful position is affirmed. Let’s pray. Lord, for what we know not, teach us. For what we have not, give us. And for what we are not, make us. And all God’s people said, amen.